The shaping phase is the third phase of the basic oil painting process. The first phase is the drawing phase which basically consists of making a map of your subject matter which contains enough information to guide you through the actual creation of your painting. Accuracy of lengths, directions, positions, etc. is the name of the game in this phase.

The second phase of the painting process is the so-called block-in phase. This phase requires you to paint in all the colored areas without paying attention to detail. The idea is to be accurate (i.e., do not destroy the drawing phase) not only in dimensions but also in color (i.e., hue, value, and intensity) and to end up with a canvas that is completely covered with color.

In other words, at the end of the first phase we are left with a black and white drawing of the scene we wish to paint as well as with a number of instructions to be used during the next phases.

The purpose of the second phase (the block-in phase) is to take the drawing of our scene and transform it into a series of large colored shapes without detail. These shapes should have the correct dimensions, geometry, composition, position, etc. The colors of these large shapes should be, on average, identical to the colors of the real shapes as they are observed in reality.

So, this is what we are supposed have in front of us at the beginning of the third phase, the so-called shaping phase.

The third phase, the shaping phase, can be seen as a modeling phase. We revisit every large shape and put in the necessary smaller shapes so that the result begins to look like the actual objects you are trying to paint. In this phase I use thicker paint than in the Block-in Phase and also a somewhat smaller brush. Part of the reason to use thicker paint is so that we do not break the "fat over lean" rule of oil painting.

In general, a large shape will not have the same color everywhere. This is the time to refine the hue, value, and intensity of the color of that shape. This will help you to render a more realistic representation of the object this shapes belongs to.

If you do one large shape at a time then each time you will be working in the neighborhood of just one color. In the second phase you colored each large shape in one average color for that shape. Say, for a particular shape, this color happens to be blue, then, to model and refine this large shapes, you will be working with the same blue but with variations in value and intensity. In general, it is then possible to just use one brush or at most three (one for light, halftone, and dark).

This third phase usually requires the most time and effort. It is imperative that you constantly compare what you have painted with the real scene in front of you. Each time you see a difference, you need to correct it then and there. Do not wait until later, because procrastination in painting invariably means lost time. Still, do not be tempted to put in really fine detail.

The objective of this third phase is to end up with an almost finished painting. All objects and subjects should be fully formed and show a good likeness with reality. The composition, design, geometry, and lighting should all be in place. In other words, all that should be missing are the highlights and the accents.

In this article we discussed in detail the third phase in a typical oil painting process. This phase is usually the most demanding and time consuming and involves modeling and refining of the geometry and the colors. The end result should in essence be a finished painting except for the fine details.

About the Author

Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter.